How much unpaid overtime is acceptable

[Lemonwoe]

Just curious. At a salary of £40k, how much unpaid overtime would you expect to do?

Nhs. I would say aprox 5 hours a week

None. I don't work for free.

I do sometimes work late but get toil back.

If I logged on to my emails over a weekend I take whatever time it took back another day.

When I was a librarian I used to have set hours and took time in lieu or claimed overtime for any excess including travel time as I dont drive.

Later I was an academic and there were no set hours so I more or less set my own. However I sometimes worked through weekends to complete a paper deadline/funding application.

Im self employed now and if anyone else asks me to do something I charge by the hour for my time at £50 ph. This is what a trades-person would charge so I believe this is reasonable. Im a business person not a charity so I dont do stuff for free - not even for neighbours!

Zero

None. I’m a residential property solicitor in a non-managerial role.

Currently doing paid overtime because we’re so busy. I’d rather stick to my PT hours and not earn the extra.

I recon probably about 3.5 hours a week. A mixture of starting a bit early and working through my lunch breaks. I always leave on time at the end of the day though. I work in a school on £18k.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses

My full time salary is £42, and I work 0.8. Pre-Covid I pretty much worked my hours other than the odd bit of work on a very busy spell. Now I work a lot more. I’m a lecturer and remote teaching is much harder in terms of prep, plus students (and management) seem to think we are available 24/7. Today I was at my desk at 8, and shut down at 5.30 - my contracted hours are 9-5. I actually told my manager that I was hoping to take my day off this week. It really stinks.

I feel as if I wrote this! I’m in exactly the same position. I’ve just filled in the paperwork for my (usually pointless) annual review and getting back to working my proper hours is my one objective. It doesn’t help that most of my colleagues think it is totally normal to work a seven day week late into the evening.

I’ve normalised it
It appears to be the norm where I work and sector
Even for the £40k salaries

Easily 10 hour days adding to an extra day a week

It’s shit

None.

NHS senior health are worker on 44k latest time and motion study showed us working 130% and we are just keeping heads above water legally and morally. Toil in theory but no chance to take back. But time off for kids appointments flex to start time if clinics allow no questions asked

A salary of £40k and just out of university I’d say 10hours a week - your throwing everything you’ve got to accelerate your career
£40k on 20 years experience, I’d say an hour or two tops if you hadn’t finished something g crucial.

@Lemonwoe

Just curious. At a salary of £40k, how much unpaid overtime would you expect to do?

0, the company can't have my skills for nothing. They want my time outside of contracted hours, they pay me.

That’s a good way of putting it @londongram. I’m in the latter position.

None! Unless I was very passionate about the job and wanted to do it.

£40k can't be a higher level management role where that kind of thing is expected (unless you work in 3rd sector maybe) so why would you work for free?

@MinnieMountain

That’s a good way of putting it *@londongram*. I’m in the latter position.

Sorry for my typos. So our grad is paid £40k - and will be expected to work his butt off and he will receive a generous bonus for the work and if he continues to develop a fast track promotion. It's expected in the job and to not work over time at his stage would be career suicide for him. Our PA is paid £40k too no one expects her to work overtime although she has had to work after hours to sort out a diary disaster - not of her making but she was still the person to fix it - that's happened once in 3 years. She gets a small bonus.

I do about 10-15 hours extra a week.

In the real world, its how you work up and get promoted

Should it be that way? Maybe not, but it is, so to me it's worth it and has paid dividends over time.

Sorry meant to say, on 50K. I doubled my salary in 4 years in one company and I know that's due to going the extra mile. Which I was lucky to be able to do as no childcare etc to worry anout.

I don't care what the salary is. If I'm not being paid I'm not working.

In some jobs, you are paid per hour - and you concentrate on your hourly rate, so unpaid time is not on.

In other roles ,you get paid for doing a job, not for the actual hours you work. You might have "core hours" but it's expected that you work when work needs to be done. It's pretty much in your contract! As long as it can go both ways, it's not a bad thing.

Personally upto 5% to allow for arriving in the office early and cracking on finishing a task before I leave etc starting a new task or being required I then start clocking my overtime in.

None, regardless of salary. I might CHOOSE to do it occasionally but I wouldn’t EXPECT to.

I have standard hours and then a clause which says something like “whatever else is needed to do the job.”

When I was working in a consultancy role in London, £40k would be quite a junior salary and everyone worked long hours in pursuit of promotion. It wasn't the sort of job you'd have if you wanted to stick at £40k and just work 35 hours a week. The extra hours were like an investment for the future - if you got promoted you could expect to earn a lot more than that, but that would never happen if you kept leaving at 5pm. That was just the culture of the company and if it didn't suit you, you'd be better off leaving.

It suited me when I was in my 20s - I worked long hours, sometimes weekends etc, got promoted quickly and earned a lot of money. When I became a parent my priorities changed and I now earn a lot less in a much less stressful career (although I still have a busy professional job).

On just under £50k. I don’t do unpaid overtime. My time is valuable, not giving it away for free.

However I’m currently on mat leave and the little tiny dictator I’m currently working for doesn’t seem to understand this🙄

All the people saying the refuse to do any extra. I'm interested to know how this was viewed in the workplace and if you have still been able to progress your career?